Any assistance explaining how to work this would be great!

Question

The force exerted by the wind on the sails of a sailboat is Fsail = 480 N north. The water exerts a force of Fkeel = 240 N east. If the boat (including its crew) has a mass of 350 kg, what are the magnitude and direction of its acceleration?

Answer 1

The acceleration is the magnitude of the net force divided by the mass.

Since the two component forces are perpendicular, the magnitude of the net force is
sqrt[(480)^2 + (240)^2] = 536.7 N

The direction of the acceleration is that of the resultant force, tan^-1(1/2) = 26.6 degrees east of north