If all the people who had boats stored in Hall, Gwinnett, Forsyth and Dawson counties took them all out on Lake Lanier on the same day, the waters would be filled with more than 40,000 watercraft, ranging from million dollar houseboats to Jet Skis and homemade skiffs.

Even that impressive number of vessels wouldn’t pack the lake like a child’s bathtub with too many toys; with 39,000 acres of water, there’s enough room for every boat in the four counties contiguous to Lanier, plus more.

An analysis by The Times of the state Department of Natural Resources’ boat registration database showed that Gainesville leads the way in the Lake Sidney Lanier region with more than 7,000 watercraft in slips, drydocks, garages and carports. But Gwinnett County has nearly as many personal watercraft, commonly referred to by the trademarked name Jet Skis, and Dawson County has more boats per person.

Dawson County, which has more cars than people, has a watercraft for every 8.5 people in the community of 22,000.

In Hall County, population 184,000, one out of every 11 people owns a boat or personal watercraft.

Gwinnett County has about 12,689 watercraft, but that’s just one for every 62 people in the sprawling metro county of 790,000 people.

The DNR records boat registrations based on where they’re stored most of the time — at least 184 days out of the year — not where the owner lives. There are dozens of hometowns of boat owners listed for the databases of the four counties, from Lula to Daytona Beach.

Gainesville is tops, followed by Cumming (6,435 watercraft owners), Buford (2,932), Flowery Branch (1,954), Dawsonville (1,837), Suwanee (1,417) Duluth (1,396) and Atlanta (1,369).

Of the 42,439 registered watercraft in the four counties, nearly 70 percent are classified as "open" or open-bow boats. Fewer than 20 percent are personal watercraft, which number 7,838 total in Dawson, Gwinnett, Forsyth and Hall.

The "homemade boat" classification is rare; there are just 102 registered in the four counties, including 29 in Hall.

Sailboats shorter than 12 feet, canoes, kayaks and rowboats are exempted from registration requirements.

Barkley Geib, owner of Lanier Harbor Marina, wasn’t surprised by the number The Times reached with its analysis.

"Forty thousand boats in the four-county area sounds about right," Geib said, noting Lanier is one of the most-visited U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes in the country.

The corps estimates that Lanier gets 8 million visitors a year, a number that has been eclipsed in recent, drought-stricken years by the healthier Hartwell Lake. Hartwell, which straddles two counties in Georgia and two counties in South Carolina, got an estimated 10 million visitors last year to a lake that has 962 miles of shoreline, compared with Lanier’s 692 miles of shore.

Department of Natural Resources Capt. Rick Godfrey, who heads up law enforcement on the lake, said Lanier is such a popular boating destination in large part due to the 10 marinas that cater to every classification and size of vessel.

Godfrey predicted visitation will be up after a wet winter and spring brought Lanier back up to within 6 feet of full pool.

"A lot of the mountain lakes were getting more visitation, but Lanier will bring a lot of those back this year, because it’s got plenty of water, at least for boating."