On Wednesday, November 29, 2017 at 8:08:26 PM UTC-8, wrote:
In addition to max gross weight, some glider manuals specify a max weight for non lift producing components. But I haven't found much discussion of the significance of exceeding the max or information that would allow one to calculate the weight of non-lifting components (like a breakout showing the weights of the wings, etc.)

Would appreciate some discussion by those in the know.

Tom

I think Larry's interpretation seems plausible. When I've seen a separate limit called out for non-lifting components, it generally seems to be in the context of water loading. The wings are, in a sense, self-supporting in flight, whereas the fuselage hangs off of the wings. So it makes sense to call out a separate limit for the non-lifting parts; particularly when water is involved.
Tom