Paul, I'm not comfortable with either of these compositions. In the first shot, the sky is good as well as the tones of the sea but the placement of the chairs especially the one in front of the barrier hurts it for me.
the second one I like a little more because of the element of the kids playing in the water but the two chairs placed symetrically in the frame as it is does not feel right. Two even and balanced somehow. I think if you cropped out the chair on the right in the second image you would have a better comp.If there was more sky to this one, than bringing back the sky and cropping out the right side chair to a square frame I think would look very good.