Pioneering Spirit, Allseas's largest pipelay vessel, will be outfitted with a novel Jacket Lift System (JLS). A jacket refers to the steel frame which supports the topside of a fixed offshore platform. The Pioneering Spirit was already capable of lifting the topsides of offshore platforms, like the former oil platform Brent Delta, but would have to leave the jacket behind. With the JLS it will also be able to remove and install jackets.

In offshore ship mounted crane applications wave disturbances can create unwanted oscillations in suspended loads. Anti-sway control systems have been developed to aid the crane operator in decreasing these oscillations. But not all crane types have actuators suitable for this compensation. The JLS will be a derrick type crane which will be positioned above a jacket using the dynamic positioning of the ship. The hoist systems of the JLS are then lowered and connected to the jacket. During this lowering process the ship motion induced by wave disturbances create a large oscillation in the hoist system.

In this thesis a controller is developed based on a proportional derivative controller found in literature to reduce the sway in the hoist system to make the connection process possible.