New Year celebrations at the Royal Naval Dockyard were marred by what some frustrated party-goers called "bad organisation'' of the Time Warp 2000 event.

And Police had to be called in to restore order to what became a "seething mass of people'' who were trying to board one of only three Hamilton-bound ferries after the clock had struck midnight.

But organisers attributed the long waits to unexpectedly high attendance figures of between 15 and 20,000 people, which were just too much for the one ferry to handle.

The triple decker tender Bermudian was scheduled to make three round trips between Dockyard and Hamilton after midnight, at 12.30, 2 and 3.30 a.m.

But after the first two stops at Dockyard's wharf, Police had to be called in due to the unruly crowds who were panicking and pushing to get to the front of the queue.

One woman, who waited for almost two hours, called it a "dangerous and stupid'' situation.

"It was an awful experience,'' she said, "I missed the first ferry simply because there were just too many people trying to get on.

"I was terrified that I was going to be thrown into the sea because the barriers in front of me were so flimsy,'' the woman added.

"It was a dreadful, seething mass, with people screaming and shouting,'' she said.

The woman called some aspects of the event's organisation "appalling'', adding that the method of selling tickets for the ferry had clearly been "willy-nilly''.

Big scramble to board ferries "And I don't think anybody was even checking the wristbands when people boarded the ferry in Hamilton. It was grossly inefficient.'' Other party-goers voiced their feelings as they waited in the crowd, who by the end of the night were singing songs in unison to help pass the time.

"They really should have organised it better,'' said Tony Suharto. "We've been waiting here for about two hours and there just should have been more ferries.'' Another man, who asked not to be named, said that this "bad organisation'' had "put a damper'' on his night.

"I can see that a lot of time and effort went into planning this but it was very good for the most part,'' he said, "but more should have been done in organising the transportation.

"This is the low point in everyone's night,'' he added, "and I'll tell you, its done nothing to discourage people from drunk driving.

"Next time we'll take the car.'' Marion Dyer said: "It definitely could have been organised a little better.

The Police should have been here from the very beginning to help out.'' She also pointed out that "more frequency with the ferries would have been nice'' and boats should have been making trips every half-hour.

But West End Development Corporation special events coordinator Miranda Mello said: "I guess we just didn't anticipate how successful the event would be.'' She added: "The ferry is a very expensive form of transport and the staff were working until after 4 a.m. as it was.'' "And we could have used the other two boats, but they only hold 250 people each. It just would have been too expensive to do that for what it was.'' Mrs. Mello did concede that one thing which could have been done better was the organisation of the queues at the wharf, saying that, next time, barriers would be erected well ahead of time to give the boarding some sort of order.