Jack-up vessel for comprising a buoyant hull, a plurality of jack-up legs comprising leg chords having racks, and jacking assemblies to relatively move the associated leg chord the buoyant hull vertically. Jacking assemblies comprise actuators and a pinion group, comprising a plurality of pinions arranged vertically above each other. Jacking assemblies further comprise a sensor system for sensing the load distribution associated with a pinion group. The jack-up vessel further comprises a control system configured for receiving information about an intended use and/or future environmental conditions and determining a pre-operation load distribution over the pinions in the pinion group, in which pre-operation load distribution the loads within this pinion group are unequally distributed, such that during the intended use and/or during the future environmental conditions the loads within this pinion group are equally distributed.