Hi is this a trick question. Do I ignore the variation or convert to true north.
This is not one of our questions. There is no such thing as an AFOR any more, the old Area Forecast is now a GAF (Graphical Area Forecast) and the wind is not given in a GAF. The wind is now found in a GPWT (Grid Point Wind and Temperature) forecast. However, that makes no difference to the method.
In any case, the wind in any forecast is always in degrees True. So you can convert the wind to magnetic by subtracting the variation, or you can convert the FPT to true by adding the variation. It doesn't matter which you do as long as they are both in the same name. Either way, the wind is at 47° to the track so you must find the headwind component to get a ground speed.