FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Federal authorities were in the process of seizing a Palm Beach $9 million mansion belonging to disgraced financier Bernie Madoff on Wednesday evening, just hours after they took his vintage yacht from a Fort Lauderdale boat yard, according to federal authorities.

U.S. Marshals spokesman Barry Golden said marshals were entering and securing the property, changing the locks and conducting an inventory. Golden said the process could take "a while."

Local 10’s Rob Schmitt caught up with marshals at the Palm Beach home where they said the house and its contents will eventually be sold.

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals also seized a yacht from the Roscioli Yachting Center on State Road 84 in Fort Lauderdale. Golden said the yacht named "The Bull" is a 1969 Rybovich and was "extremely well-kept." The Bull, a 55-foot fishing boat worth $2.2 million, is considered an antique.

According to boat yard owner Bob Roscioli, Madoff owned the boat for nearly 40 years and kept it at the yachting center for about the last 12 years. Roscioli said Madoff kept the yacht parked for six months of the year and mostly used it when he visited Florida during the winter.

Madoff had the yacht repainted just before his indictment last year, Roscioli said.

“He would take it up to his home in Palm Beach. He didn’t use the boat very much, but he just likes the ambience of it, the antiqueness of it,” said boat yard owner Bob Roscioli. “It’s a gorgeous boat, and it’s a shame it’s going to be taken out. It’s going to be out in the sun. Summertime’s coming. It’s going to get destroyed.”

The yacht’s name is a not-so-subtle reference to the reputation Madoff had with his investors, Local 10’s Roger Lohse reported. But prosecutors said the $65 billion he allegedly swindled from them was actually invested in himself, not Wall Street.

A federal judge in New York ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to take custody of the yacht.

“We don’t rip the boat apart. We’re not looking for money. We’re just seizing the boat,” Golden said. “We’re taking inventory of the contents of the boat, and then it’ll be turned over to the substitute custodian and taken to their yard.”

Authorities took the yacht to a nearby marina to be held by National Liquidators, the company that is going to liquidate Madoff’s assets.

A 24-foot motor boat belonging to Madoff also was seized from another Florida marina on Wednesday.

Madoff is in jail pending sentencing for pleading guilty to charges he swindled billions from investors in what could be the biggest scam in Wall Street history. He faces a maximum sentence of 150 years in prison, and he is set to be sentenced in June.

Court documents show Madoff and his wife had $823 million in assets at the end of last year -- including the boats.