CHICAGO - Brunswick Corp., the world’s largest maker of recreational boats, posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on higher sales overseas, sending its shares up as much as 12 percent.

But profit was down sharply from a year earlier as the economic slowdown kept buyers out of US marine showrooms. Charges associated with plant closures and other restructuring efforts also ate away at the bottom line.

Even so, strong sales outside the United States, boosted by the weak dollar, helped the company beat Wall Street earnings estimates.

Brunswick reported a first-quarter net profit of $13.3 million, or 15 cents a share, down from $45.6 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, had expected the Lake Forest, Illinois-based Company to earn 10 cents a share, according to Reuters estimates.

Sales fell 3 percent to $1.35 billion.

Tim Conder, an analyst at Wachovia, said while Brunswick was "performing admirably under challenging conditions, fundamentals remain difficult. ... The subsequent question will then be, ‘What will be the shape of the recovery?’ We feel the answer to this is more gradual and protracted than most anticipate."

Adding to the industry’s challenges are rising fuel prices, which are simultaneously draining away discretionary income from would-be buyers and making the cost of operating a boat higher.

"You’ve got so many pressures on consumer spending right now," said Hayley Wolff, an analyst at Rochdale Securities.

She said recent reports from MarineMax Inc., Brunswick’s largest US customer and the world’s largest boat seller, showed sales growth slowing as the first quarter went on — and said "to the best of my knowledge, that market has gotten incrementally more challenging in the second quarter than the first quarter.

"The headlines of $4 a gallon gasoline ... are not going to stimulate demand for boating over the summer."

Dusty McCoy, Brunswick chairman and chief executive, acknowledged as much on Thursday, saying in a statement that "difficult times and more hard work" lay ahead for the company.

He said Brunswick, which has already slashed production of some boats, would be announcing additional production cuts in the coming months.

"Sales for the quarter reflected lower demand for marine products, particularly in the United States, where industry retail sales were down about 17 percent in units in the first quarter," McCoy said.

The company said restructuring and other charges booked in the quarter included severance costs, asset write-downs and impairment charges associated with the shuttering of plants in Aberdeen, Mississippi, and Antigo, Wisconsin.

"In response to market conditions, we continued to lower production rates to reduce pipeline inventories held by our dealers," McCoy said.

But even with those efforts, dealers had 35 weeks of supply on hand at the end of the first quarter, up from 34 weeks a year earlier.

"Consumers remain cautious in the face of an uncertain economy, a poor housing market and rising food and energy prices that erode their spending power for discretionary purchases such as boats," McCoy said.

Brunswick shares were up $1.15, or 7.6 percent, at $16.28 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange after earlier rising as high as $17.05. The shares have lost more than half their value in the past year.

Nearly 22 percent of the company’s public float was shorted as of April 15, according to data from the New York Stock Exchange, and those short positions went up sharply earlier this month to a level twice what they were at year’s end.

Wolff at Rochdale Securities said that suggested that at least some of Thursday’s rally in Brunswick’s shares was caused by short investors buying the stock to close their positions and limit their losses.