Its engine is blown, the floorboards ripped out, the electronics gone.

There's even a leftover stench of rotten bait.

Add to that the fact that four people were killed on the 47-foot Joe Cool -- and the boat seems more fitting for ghosts than guests.

Still, someone wants to buy it.

An auction to sell the notorious boat, on which four people were shot to death last year and dumped into the high seas during a charter voyage, was scheduled for Wednesday in a Miami-Dade courtroom.

But Circuit Judge Ronald Friedman canceled all bidding until the boat -- currently docked behind a Star Island home -- is available for viewing to prospective buyers. A date hasn't been set.

The court became involved in the sale of the boat because of an ongoing family dispute over the insurance policy on the vessel.

ONE OFFER

Barclay Tuck, a broker retained to sell the boat, said an unidentified yacht salvage company already has an offer on the table: $70,000.

Tuck said his client isn't concerned that the sport-fishing vessel might be haunted, but admits that most boaters -- known to be superstitious -- would be.

''Nobody wants a boat that people were murdered on,'' he said. ``They think there are ghosts on there.''

The boat turned into a crime scene on Sept. 22, 2007, when two men chartered the vessel for a one-way trip to Bimini.

Authorities say the men hijacked the boat and killed the crew: Captain Jack Branam, 27; his wife, Kelley, 30; Scott Gamble, 35; and Samuel Kairy, 27. All lived on Miami Beach.

The alleged killers -- Kirby Archer and Guillermo Zarabozo -- were plucked from the sea on a life raft and told authorities a group of Cuban pirates had murdered the crew.

Archer, a former U.S. Army guard at the Guantánamo naval station, pleaded guilty in July to first-degree murder and is awaiting sentencing. His accomplice, Guillermo Zarabozo, will be retried in January on murder, kidnapping and robbery charges.

A federal judge in Miami recently declared a mistrial in Zarabozo's case when jurors were deadlocked after five days of deliberations.

After the bloodshed aboard the Joe Cool, authorities closely examined it for evidence. In the process, the vessel was badly damaged, Tuck said.

Not only were the electronics taken out, but the bow of the boat was destroyed, and the inside compartments and furniture had to be ripped out because of a foul smell from bait that had rotted in the refrigerator.

Also, in the past year the yacht has been docked near the home of Jeff Branam, the late captain's uncle, and hasn't been maintained.

`TURNED INTO SHELL'

''It's in terrible condition,'' Tuck said. ``It's a really nice boat that has been turned into a shell. Whoever buys it needs to put some serious money into it.''

Tuck estimates the cost of refurbishing the boat at about $150,000.

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