auto white balance

It's all very subjective IMHO.

stu49's pic of the pier looks cool with a blue tint. Is it accurate to the scene as shot? Who knows?, but as long as it looks great is it a problem?
I would certainly increase contrast but the blue vibe looks nice to me.

Looking at the levels and some samples in the image:
1) The pier paint work is pretty neutral - it doesn't have a blue tint
2) The RHS foreground grass area doesn't have a blue tint.

Unfortunately, without seeing the original scene, it's quite difficult to comment. Like film you can have odd effects when there is a large amount of UV around - this could contribute to a blue tint on the sky and sea.

Personally, I shoot RAW and generally leave WB to Auto (unless I'm in a controlled lighting situation where I'll grab a manual WB from something neutral as a reference). Then I'll sort things out in Silkypix Dev Pro

Certainly with the image you show a simple Auto-Levels goes a long way to correcting the image. Additionally, if you just adjust the Luminance of the image (I added a Curves adjustment layer with the blend mode set to Luminosity) and correct the underexposure then the image looks fine (much better than using Auto Levels)!

So, I think it's mainly a combination of underexposure and viewing conditions.

HTH!
Matt