This tip was from an old chauffer who used to drive Rolls Royces (wash my mouth!) for the nobility in England.
Wash car in your usual way. To dry it, take a well rinsed chamois. Wring it out as dry as you can ( or as dry as your arthiritis will allow). Grab the two adjacent corners. Lay it flat on the paint surface and drag it across. Wring out. Repeat until car is dry, rinsing in clean water often. This action partly squeegees the water off and partly absorbs water into the chamois by presenting the maximum possible area of the chamois to the surface and, best of all, it never leaves streak marks. Always pull in the longditudinal direction of the car, never across. (This applies to ANY contact with the paint whether you are washing, wax polishing, California dustering, etc. unless it's already spent most of its life in car washes, when it'll be beyond redemption!
By the way, the only time I can envisage a chamois scratching the paint is if you drop it in the dirt and fail to rinse it!
PeteS