Regarding the pools in my OP that are 35 yards…one was my regular pool for many years. It was on the local Navy base in Newport, RI (I’m retired Navy), and in the 60s or 70s it had been converted from a water survival training pool, then turned over to the base recreation department and set it up for lap swimming (there were actually two of these pools on the base). I sought the answer to why 35 yards for a long time. No one knew. Then, I transferred to Fort Meade, MD and encountered one there. That’s where they had used jersey barriers placed in the shallow end set precisely to make the lap swimming area 25 meters. The remainder 9-10 yards of shallow area was a play area for kids. Someone there explained that the military built their training pools at odd lengths so that swim teams wouldn’t request use of the pool for meets since it couldn’t be used for official results.
Regarding the pools in my OP that are 35 yards…one was my regular pool for many years. It was on the local Navy base in Newport, RI (I’m retired Navy), and in the 60s or 70s it had been converted from a water survival training pool, then turned over to the base recreation department and set it up for lap swimming (there were actually two of these pools on the base). I sought the answer to why 35 yards for a long time. No one knew. Then, I transferred to Fort Meade, MD and encountered one there. That’s where they had used jersey barriers placed in the shallow end set precisely to make the lap swimming area 25 meters. The remainder 9-10 yards of shallow area was a play area for kids. Someone there explained that the military built their training pools at odd lengths so that swim teams wouldn’t request use of the pool for meets since it couldn’t be used for official results.