I beleive I've read somewhere that all boats qualified for the champ will receive a boat number between 1-40. and early bird entrants after 40 will be assigned numbers randomly.If this is true that means 1st time MWC competitors may have lower boat numbers than teams that have competed as early birds last year.Were last years early bird #'s limited to just the top 40? I thought they were assigned by were a team finished in standings even if they didn't qualify for the Champ.

You've summarized it correctly. Only the teams that were in the championship cut retain their "placement." Some will move up if teams ahead of them are not fishing early bird.

Everyone else (veterans or new teams) will be treated the same for random boat numbers.