A Sydney to Hobart sailor plans to take his yacht further afield, to the Pacific Islands, to assess hundreds of patients and perform eye surgery in Tonga and Tuvalu.

Adelaide ophthalmologist John Willoughby is the founder of Vision of Islands, one of several health charities operating across the region.

He is also the skipper of Sydney to Hobart yacht Enchantress, and plans to sail to the Pacific Islands as a way to use his surgical expertise in more remote areas than his team has previously reached.

Dr Willoughby said the procedures could be life-changing for people suffering serious eye problems, citing the reaction of a patient who had been treated.

"When we do an operation, the next day we take the eye patch off and a lady who has had to be led around suddenly jumps to her feet," he said.

"All her carers rush to grab her to stop her from falling.

"She pushes them away and does a little hula dance — it certainly is very moving to see that sort of thing."

The charity team hopes to one day see enough local doctors trained to help Pacific islanders. ( Supplied: Vision of Islands )

The Adelaide surgeon said previous trips by air had run into delays and problems with transporting the equipment needed, hampering efforts to treat as many people as possible within a two-week window.

He said he hoped putting $1.5 million of equipment on board the yacht and sailing to remote islands would help many more people.

"We feel sorry for the people [who are] very deserving [but] just don't have the opportunities we have here," he said.

"Having a boat will make things more reliable.

"I have one optometrist who gets sea sick, but even they're happy to do it."

Sailing to new patients and checking previous ones

The team is planning to sail a route which reaches new patients but also gives them a chance to check up on as many past patients as possible.

Some eye disease is more severe at younger ages than in most Australian patients. ( Supplied: Vision of Islands )

Dr Willoughby has done some of his work in the islands since the 1960s, saying the only alternative for locals needing treatment was to try to find the money to travel to places such as Malaysia.

He said some people in Tuvalu suffered disastrous cataracts and at younger ages compared with Australians.

"Occasionally they can count fingers of a hand held in front of them — sometimes they can just see the hand moving as a shadow," he explained.

Previous surgery has sometimes been plagued by clinic set-up and equipment transportation delays. ( Supplied: Vision of Islands )

He said diet and exposure to ultraviolent light were among the problems in island communities.

The surgeon said he hoped eventually to help train enough local doctors to support Pacific communities.

He also believed Australian student doctors could help out if universities backed the push.

"The pathology we see is extreme, so we're talking serious illnesses, yet in Australia we're producing doctors that sometimes can't get jobs," he said.