For a large floating vessel in waves, radiation damping is not an accurate prediction of the degree of roll unlike other degrees of freedom motion. Therefore, to get the knowledge of roll motion performance of deepwater pipelay crane vessels and to keep the vessel working safety, the paper presents the relationship between a series of dimensionless roll damping coefficients and the roll response amplitude operator (RAO). By using two kinds of empirical data, the roll damping is estimated in the calculation flow. After getting the roll damping coefficient from the model test, a prediction of roll motion in regular waves is evaluated. According to the wave condition in the working region, short term statistics of roll motion are presented under different wave parameters. Moreover, the relationship between the maximal roll response level to peak spectral wave period and the roll damping coefficient is investigated. Results may provide some reference to design and improve this kind of vessel.