The paper presents the dynamic model of an A-frame, which is a kind of an offshore crane with a portal construction. The rigid finite element method (RFEM) has been used in discretization of the flexible substructure. An application of optimisation methods to define the drive function course of the hoisting winch is presented. The goal of the optimisation is to ensure stabilization of the load’s position. In order to achieve appropriate numerical effectiveness, the optimisation problem has been solved for a simplified model of an A-frame. Comparison of numerical results obtained for different types of objective functions and types of drive functions is presented in the paper as well.