It's a PR piece for a new product. "Articles" like this is very common in
all boating magazines. Normally they agree to run so many ads if the
magazine agrees to run the piece.

You don't know a goddam thing about boats, and don't even begin to insinuate
you know anything about boating magazines.

Pick up any issue of any boating magazine, and if it is reasonably successful
you can go through the magazine and say, "Oh, look! Here's an ad for that
company or brand of boat that was featured in an article this month. Must be
something fu'd going on here." Of course the fact that the same company or
product may have advertised regularly for years means nothing....

Now count the dozens, scores, or in some of the largest publications the
*hundreds* of ads for companies that do not have articles appearing in the
issue. Any explanation for those?

Add the publishing business to the list of things you need to learn more about.