[Sailormon6]

You don''t say why your racing friend recommended against it. I can only tell you my experience. When ablatives first became popular and I didn''t have time to race-prep my boat properly one spring, I lightly sanded the ablative paint, just enough to get rid of any remaining dirt and algae. As long as I regularly wiped it clean each week, it was fast enough to be reasonably competitive. (Keep in mind, however, that I have never allowed my bottom paint to peel badly. Even when the paint has gotten thin, it was still smooth.) Obviously, I couldn''t usually beat the fastest boats that were properly prepped, but my boat was competitive enough to mix it up with them and to have fun. If you sand it lightly and also put a single coat of fresh paint on it before you launch, that one coat will be enough to last until the fall, when you plan to do a better job of it. It will be a lot faster with a good racing paint.