A jack-up vessel

A method for operating a jack-up vessel the jack-up vessel comprising:

• a buoyant hull;
• a plurality of jack-up legs, each jack-up leg comprising one or more leg chords, each leg chord having at least one rack;
• a plurality of jacking assemblies, each jacking assembly being associated with a leg chord, each jacking assembly being configured to vertically move the associated leg chord relatively to the buoyant hull,
• wherein each jacking assembly comprises:
• a pinion group comprising a plurality of pinions arranged vertically above each other, each pinion engaging the rack of a leg chord and being configured for transferring load between the hull and the leg chord resulting in a load distribution over the plurality of pinions within the pinion group;
• actuators for actuating the pinions of the pinion group, each actuator being configured for actuating a corresponding pinion;
• and
• a sensor system configured for sensing the load distribution over the plurality of pinions associated with each pinion group, and configured for emitting sensor signals indicative of the sensed load distribution;
• and
• a control system,
• the method comprising the steps of:
• operating the jacking assemblies to lower the jack-up legs for engagement with a seabed and raising the buoyant hull to a distance above a water level;
• receiving information about an intended use and/or about future environmental conditions;
• determining, based on the received information, a pre-operation load distribution over the plurality of pinions of a pinion group, in which pre-operation load distribution the loads over the pinions within the pinion group are unequally distributed, such that in an operational load distribution during the intended use and/or during the future environmental conditions, the loads within the pinion group are equally distributed;
• sensing an actual load distribution associated with the pinion group, and emitting sensor signals indicative of the sensed load distribution;
• the control system receiving the sensor signals indicative of the sensed actual load distribution and determining/computing a difference between the pre-operation load distribution and the sensed actual load distribution;
• and
• the control system emitting, in response to the difference, control signals to the actuators such that the actuators are operated and cause the sensed actual load distribution of the pinion group to correspond to the pre-operation load distribution.