The Sommers dredger was transferred to the Azovo-Chernomorsky basin branch of FSUE "Rosmorport". Previously, the trailing suction hopper dredger was operated by the North-Western basin branch of the enterprise during dredging operations in the seaport of Ust-Luga. The dredger is planned to be used for dredging in the seaports of Kavkaz, Temryuk and Tuapse.

The Sommers dredger is the lead vessel of a series of three vessels of the TSHD 1000 project, built in 2016 by order of FSUE "Rosmorport" at the "Krasnoye Sormovo" shipyard.

The Sommers dredger is equipped with one side sucker with a drag-type hopper with a capacity of 4500 m³ per hour (by water), located on the right side of the dredging pump and designed to excavate soil of 1-3 categories at depths from 4 to 20 meters. In addition, the vessel has a crane with grab gear with a maximum lifting capacity of 12 tons and a grab volume of 3.8 m³, as well as two hydraulic cranes with a lifting capacity of 3 tons. The Sommers is also equipped with a pile installation consisting of 2 spuds up to 13.5 meters long and designed to hold the vessel in position when working with a crane with grab gear.

The volume of the hold compartment of the dredger is 1,000 m³, which allows to transport independently the excavated soil to the place of unloading and unload it through the bottom doors from the hold to the bottom dump or to the shore through the fore connection to the shore discharge pipe. It is also possible to unload from the hold using the "rainbow" method with an ejection distance of about 60 meters.

For more information about the conditions and procedure for providing dredging services in the seaports of Kavkaz, Temryuk and Tuapse, as well as in other seaports of the Black Sea basin, see the section "Dredging services of the Azovo-Chernomorsky basin branch".