Flexible hang-off arrangement is provided for a catenary riser suspended from an offshore or inshore platform, which includes floating or fixed platforms, vessels or/and buoys. The bending loads in the top segments of the said riser are reduced by incorporating a pivot at the riser hang-off. Pressure containing welded, bolted, rolled or swaged pipe spools transfer fluids, including hydrocarbons between the riser and the platform. Along significant spool lengths the tangents to the center lines of said spools are orthogonal to and offset from the tangent to the center line of the riser at the hang-off. The said pressure containing spools include arbitrary looped, spiral and helicoidal designs that are subject to torsion.