Offshore vessel, preferably an offshore wind turbine installation vessel, a crane for providing such a vessel, and a method for using such a crane, preferably for upending a monopile

An offshore vessel, comprising:

• a hull having a storage deck;
• and
• a crane comprising:
• a crane base secured to the hull;
• a slewable superstructure mounted on the crane base and slewable about a vertical slew axis relative to the crane base;
• a slew drive configured to cause slew motion of the superstructure about the slew axis;
• a boom structure comprising a boom that is pivotally connected to the superstructure about an inner pivot axis;
• a luffing mechanism comprising a luffing drive and configured to cause luffing motion of the boom structure;
• a hoisting assembly comprising a hoisting winch and a hoisting winch driven cable;
• a load connector, wherein the winch driven cable extends between a sheave on the boom structure and a sheave on the load connector;
• a computerized crane control system linked to the slew drive, the luffing drive, and the hoisting winch;
• and
• an observation system linked to the computerized crane control system, for tracking movement of the load connector, the observation system comprising:
• at least one camera, mounted to the boom, to register a crane working area view, of a working area of the crane;
• an augmentation system, linked with the at least one camera and with the crane control system, and configured to combine graphic crane information with a real time view registered by the camera into an augmented crane working area view;
• and
• a display linked to the augmentation system to present the augmented crane working area view to a crane driver.

An offshore vessel, comprising:

• a hull;
• and
• a crane comprising:
• a crane base secured to the hull;
• a slewable superstructure mounted on the crane base and slewable about a vertical slew axis relative to the crane base;
• a slew drive configured to cause slew motion of the superstructure about the slew axis;
• a boom structure comprising a boom that is pivotably connected to the superstructure about an inner pivot axis;
• a luffing mechanism comprising a luffing drive and configured to cause luffing motion of the boom structure;
• a hoisting assembly comprising a hoisting winch and a hoisting winch driven cable;
• a load connector, wherein the winch driven cable extends between a sheave set on the boom structure and a sheave set on the load connector;
• a computerized crane control system linked to the slew drive, the luffing drive, and the hoisting winch;
• and
• a collision prevention system, comprising multiple proximity detectors, the multiple proximity detectors being located along at least a top section of the boom structure to scan a collision safety zone extending adjacent at least the top section of the boom structure, to detect an object entering the collision safety zone during a slew motion and/or a luffing motion and to subsequently present a crane driver with a warning signal and/or stop the slew motion and/or luffing motion of the boom to prevent a collision with the detected object.