Two adults and a child were rescued from strong currents in Morecambe Bay in what the lifeboat crew said could have been "a devastating situation".
The three people had been caught in the currents near Jenny Brown's Point at Silverdale, were drifting away from the shoreline and unable to make it back.
The coastguard called out the Morecambe lifeboat crew at 12.14pm on Saturday.
The two adults and a child were found almost two miles offshore and suffering from the cold.
A spokesperson for Morecambe RNLI said: "Launch Authority Mark Lister authorised the immediate launch of Morecambe’s hovercraft under the command of Adam Mills which immediately made to the area.
"(The three people) were recovered and taken to shore leaving them in the safety of Arnside Coastguard.
"The hovercraft crew returned back to base whereby they made ready the craft for the next callout.
"This incident was extremely serious as whilst the casualties had a mobile phone they had no safety equipment including no life jackets.
"The casualties had already started to suffer the effects of the cold. If the crew hadn’t arrived when they did then this situation would have been devastating.
"We cannot stress enough anyone going out on the sea whether paddle boarding, kite surfing, sailing should always have the correct safety equipment including life jackets. Failure to do so as this incident shows could cost lives."


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