The reason you center the traveler is because for the most part you do not want to blanket the spinnaker with the main.
If it is gusty however and you find yourself doing a lot of bearing off really fast to depower, it helps to dump the traveler according to how much you need to depower. Once you've depowered by letring the traveler out and bearing off, you re-center the traveler and head up slowly to get more speed again. I play the main a bit in light gusts and the traveler in bigger gusts to blanket the main. Using the rudders too much is slow and if the hull goes up too fast it is possible to stall out your rudders, not allowing you to bear off.
Also, when hoisting it doesn't hurt to have the traveler out some, going downwind with the traveler centered and main tight is really slow and you'll have no apparent wind to help you accelerate.
You'll be fine. Just remember that you want to be sailing in an "S" head up for power, bear away for less, head back up and continue so that ideally the hull is skimming the whole time.